With the COVID-19 pandemic having reached over 170 countries, and cases skyrocketing in the United States and other nations, scientists around the world are working as fast as they can to develop a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Researchers from MIT and Harvard developed a new approach to antibiotic discovery using a type of artificial AI called deep learning. So far, their model has identified eight antibacterial compounds that differ in structure from known antibiotics.

Given the dependence of modern medicine on antimicrobial drugs, and the inevitability of evolution, why is bringing a new antibiotic to market so difficult, and why are so many companies leaving the industry or going bankrupt?